


Fanning the Flames

by paxnirvana



Category: Naruto
Genre: Multi, Post-Canon, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-22
Updated: 2010-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-09 15:50:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paxnirvana/pseuds/paxnirvana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-series. I figure "the kids" are about 22 years old or so here. Cameos of just about anyone I can cram in here, but it's mostly Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fanning the Flames

She intercepted him on the way to the Hyuuga compound. She'd broken the seal and read the pronouncement herself and still had barely believed it.

"You can't do this," she said, dropping lightly to the ground behind him in a mostly deserted back street. He stopped still in the middle of the road, the lean shoulders pulled back, the dark head level, but he didn't turn.

"The order is a condition of my parole," he said mildly. "They've merely amended it." She snorted and braced her fists on her hips.

Her gaze narrowed. "The Hokage will rescind it as soon as he finds out and you know it."

The dark head lifted, turned. She caught sight of his chin, the wry twist of his mouth beyond the fall of dark hair unbound by any hitai-ate. That he wore no village's sign was a condition of his parole too, she knew.

"Will he? It is in the best interests of the village, after all." His voice was edged with old bitterness.

"Stop it, Sasuke," she said with a hiss. "She's a person. A dear person and a friend. This order is... it's complete bullshit!"

He cocked his head sideways, his eyelids closing.

"The amendment was signed by her own father, Sakura. And by the entire council. I'm certain the Hyuuga were elated over the prospect of adding the potential for the Sharingan to their own bloodline."

"Not at Hinata's expense they won't!" Sakura said through clenched teeth, her hands fisting at her sides. "She's happy with Kiba, damn you! Happy!"

He turned at last, a dark brow rising slowly, the rest of his face impassive. "Happy? What does that have to do with anything, Sakura?"

She was moving before she thought further, her fist slamming into his face. She held nothing back. He didn't even try to dodge. He flew across the street without resistance and at great speed from the force of her blow, only catching himself at the last moment before he crashed into a wall, with one hand on the ground, both feet braced wide as he skidded to a sharp halt in cloud of dust. There was a trickle of blood on his lip. He made no move to wipe it away as he straightened up, looking otherwise none the worse for her blow. She hated that about him most now. How unaffected he always seemed. No... was.

That was the hardest thing she'd had to face. That he simply didn't care. Nothing seemed to affect him anymore. Nothing but... nothing but the way...

While she was still standing in battle stance, fists tight, her chest heaving with rage.

"I'll do it," she said furiously. "I know I have no bloodline limit or even a worthy chakra level to pass on, but I'll do it. Leave Hinata alone."

A reaction at last. His lip lifted slightly. "Still crushing on me are you, Sakura?" he said mildly. "I thought you got over that."

"I did," she said through clenched teeth. "Long ago. When I resolved to kill you."

She stared at his impassive face, angered, as always, by how perfect and unscarred it was. After all he'd done, all the lives he'd destroyed, the terrible destruction he'd wrought, it seemed somehow unfair that his face was still so blindingly perfect.

In all but one way.

"You tried," he said with a shrug, his dark, sightless eyes fixed on her face in that uncanny way he had. "You failed."

She bristled automatically, her chin lifting with echoes of anger not quite drowned out by old shame.

She forced her hands to relax at her sides. Met that dark, flat gaze steadily even though she knew he couldn't see her glare. "He'll be back from Suna in two weeks. Wait that long. He'll rescind it."

He turned his head slightly toward the north, the direction he'd been walking to reach the Hyuuga compound. "They have put Hinata under guard. She's been sealed into their compound. She won't be allowed to leave until after I visit."

"What?" She stared at him, stunned and horrified.

"The Hyuuga take their breeding program very seriously," Sasuke said quietly, his face utterly impassive once more.

She heard the soft sound of someone dropping down to the ground behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Shikamaru straightening up from a landing crouch, his eyes narrowed, his mouth grim.

"You heard?" he said to her, his gaze flicking warily toward Sasuke and back. She nodded once, dazed, as he continued. "I've already sent a bird to Suna asking the Hokage to return immediately."

She stared at him hollowly. "That's four days at least. They have her imprisoned, Shikamaru."

"I know," he said grimly. "They took her last night. Kiba lost it. His mom punched him unconscious."

Sakura winced. Then behind her she heard the soft sound of footfalls receding. She whirled around.

"Don't do it, Sasuke!" she called. He stopped for a moment, his back to them both, his hands lax at his sides.

"Isn't she important to him?" Sasuke said, his voice still flat.

Her chest ached then. Tears started in her eyes as he walked away.

"Of course, she is. She's his friend. Damn you, Sasuke," she said, voice tight, and helplessly watched him go.

~*~

She knelt in the room they had brought her to last night in the very heart of the Hyuuga compound, her hands folded in her lap, and waited. Try as she might, she couldn't still the faint tremors wracking her body. She had refused to touch the food and the water they had brought her. Outside the door, she knew, were two cousins, both ANBU level jounin. In the garden were three more. Barrier seals on the thresholds and sills had been keyed to her chakra, preventing her from crossing over them with blasts of excruciating pain that rendered her a quivering helpless wreck of inverted pathways and shattered nerves. She'd tried to cross them several times anyway. Until her sister came to the other side of the closed door and begged her to stop.

She earnestly hoped Kiba wasn't doing anything reckless. The last thing she wanted was for him to be hurt. Shino would take care of him, she knew. Help him get over her, in time. At least she hoped he would. Because she would not be leaving this room again, she knew, not unless she and Uchiha Sasuke...

Her mind blanked out with horror at the very idea. Her hands clenched into fists on her legs and she bit down on her lower lip hard enough to taste blood.

She would not let him touch her. She would not let him go where only Kiba had been. She would not let his body erase the memory of Kiba's warmth. She would bite her own tongue and die first.

She did not know how long it was before she heard sounds from the hallway; low voices and steadily approaching footsteps. Shapes and shadows moved on the other side of the thick paper doors.

She watched two shadows stop outside. Then the door slid open and Uchiha Sasuke stood in the doorway beside her father, his expression blank and cool. She bit back a gasp. He inclined his head to her father and took a step forward, pausing a moment on the threshold.

"These seals are overly harsh," he observed, his voice cold.

"They are a precaution," her father replied, his voice just as cold.

Sasuke's mouth firmed into a tight line, his face gone dangerously still. "So it is to be rape," he said flatly.

Hinata could not stifle a gasp at the word even as her father stiffened, his expression gone hard as stone. "My daughter knows her duty to her bloodline and to her clan."

Only she saw the flash of rage that crossed Sasuke's face. The bitter fury swiftly hidden. Then the dark head lifted, turned. "Her duty?" he said with dangerous calm, lids half-lowered over his blind eyes. "Hinata-san, will you allow my touch?"

"No, Sasuke-san, I will not," she said firmly despite the blush that crawled up her throat to stain her face. She was surprised to hear no quaver in her own voice. But why had he asked her that? Why had he come if not to see the orders through?

Her father's face contorted with frustration and rage. "Hinata! You shame us!"

"It is because of a binding order of the elders agreed to by your father that I came here, Hinata-san," he said. And then Sasuke stepped swiftly over the threshold, his hands flying through seals. Her father made a startled sound, but jerked his hand back sharply from the doorway as the Uchiha heir slammed his palms down over the inked lines and a surge of chakra flared up like crackling fire as it raced around the seals lining the room. She took a quick look with her Byakugan and saw that he'd broken the key set to only her chakra by opening the seal to react to any chakra that crossed the line at all. And the seals themselves were on the inside of the barrier.

She jumped to her feet, hands flying up to cover her mouth, her eyes gone wide and normal again as he turned to face her.

"Don't worry," he said quietly, his face still and impassive once more. "I'm not going to touch you."

"B-but... we're both sealed in now."

"Yes," he said, lifting his head and turning it slightly toward her father who was glaring at them furiously from the hallway. "And they are sealed out."

"Oh!" she said, her heart lifting for the first time in hours, a giddy sense of relief and joy swirling through her. "Oh. Thank you, Sasuke-san. I'm glad Naruto-sama was right about you."

"Don't thank me," he said quietly, seating himself on the floor near the doorway, seemingly indifferent to her furious father standing right outside. "We'll be four days stuck in here until that idiot can get back here from Suna."

She smiled broadly, her eyes glittering with relieved tears. "So, Sasuke-san, we will wait here together, and I will thank you then."

~*~

He wasn't really surprised to hear the commotion outside on the third day instead of the fourth. Shikamaru's message bird must have made good time to the Land of Wind. It was just a given that the Hokage had pushed himself to return to Konoha faster than was smart.

"You really don't want to try that right now, trust me," a low, familiar voice growled in the hall right outside. There was the sound of many feet too, and he sensed several chakra-signatures mingling and shifting away. But the one in the lead glowed far brighter, to his limited senses, than the rest.

"Rokudaime-sama!" someone called sharply. "There's a ward!"

But the Hokage had already thrown the door wide and walked right into it. Sasuke heard the sound of him hitting the far wall, and the grunt as he slumped to the floor where the chakra discharge had blown him. Sasuke could smell the faint scent of singed cloth and the more acrid scent of burned hair. He wrinkled his nose slightly in disgust and let his mouth curl. Typical.

"Fuck it!" Naruto said as he shook himself there on the floor a moment before he jumped to his feet. "Oh, crap, sorry 'bout the language, Hinata," he added hastily after a moment, rubbing loudly at the back of his head.

"Naruto-sama!" she said, jumping up, her chakra practically sparkling around her with relief. Out in the hall behind the first idiot loomed another one, his chakra dark and glowering. "Kiba-kun!" she added breathlessly.

The Inuzuka stood in the hallway radiating fury. "You okay, Hinata?"

"I am fine. Sasuke-kun has most graciously kept me company these last few days."

"What the hell is this thing?" Naruto was crouched down dangerously close to the seal on the door again. As if it hadn't just blown him across the room. "It's nasty as hell."

"Just don't touch it again, idiot," Sasuke said quietly. "I'll remove it now."

He shifted closer to the doorway. Formed the necessary seals swiftly. Then leaned forward to bury his hands flat over the marks again. Pain drove through him like knives for a moment as he misjudged the angle and drove toward the floor from a point higher than he'd intended, intersecting more of the shield than he'd planned to. The pain was hot and terrible, searing through him; as if the nerves and chakra pathways of his hands were melting. But he held his release in place and the barrier shattered after only a moment more of intense agony. He fell forward, gasping and sweating, against a broad, sturdy shoulder. His hands stung as his chakra whiplashed back into them.

"I've got you," Naruto murmured against his head as he steadied them both where they crouched, an arm circling his chest to hold him up. Sasuke couldn't stop the shudders wracking his body as his chakra continued to rebound from the seal's assault. He dimly felt the Inuzuka dart past them both, intent on the woman further within. He heard the soft impact of their bodies, the swift rustle of cloth, the breathless gasp from Hinata as Kiba apparently tried to squeeze the very air from her lungs.

"You're sure you're okay? Not h-hurt?" The other man's voice was shaking slightly with emotion. Relief?

"Only a little hungry, Kiba-kun," she murmured, her voice muffled in the reply. "It is so very good to see both you and Naruto-sama again."

The softer words that followed he could not make out through the throbbing of blood and chakra in his ears. Then, "C'mon, let's go feed you then," Kiba said louder, shifting himself and the woman closer to the door.

He heard the sound of quiet steps behind Naruto's back. Lifted his aching head toward the sudden sharp-hot glow of near killing intent. He felt Naruto stiffen too, his head turning, his breath washing over Sasuke's face.

"If you leave this room without doing your duty, daughter, by the Clan's rules you will forfeit your place in the Hyuuga Clan forever," Hiashi Hyuuga said coldly. "You will be outcast." Beside him, the younger daughter, Hanabi, gasped in shock.

"She can't follow that order," Naruto said sharply, "because I cancelled it."

"I care not for the directive, Hokage-sama," Hiashi said in clipped tones, his chakra held close and tight, giving nothing away save his determination. "This is now a matter of clan discipline."

Even as Naurto sucked in a quick, angry breath to speak Sasuke found words spilling from his own mouth. "Fool," he said, the word spitting from his lips. "Does your pride so blind you to the world's changes that you will willingly embrace the Uchiha's path of destruction?"

The silence in the room that followed his words was hot and sharp. He could feel Naruto quivering with the urge to speak, but, for once, holding himself back. He wondered if someone had clamped a hand over his mouth. But he sensed no one near enough to do so but himself.

"Hyuuga will not suffer from new blood – but it might from old. Uchiha will not condone any such alliances with Hyuuga again."

"You must comply with your parole decree and breed an heir, Uchiha Sasuke, or face severe punishment," Hiashi snapped. Hinata gasped and struggled in Kiba's grasp. The Inuzuka didn't let her break free. A good sign.

"I fully intend to comply with the decree. I have received an offer and accepted it."

"Eh?" Naruto said, jerking back slightly in shock.

Hiashi's rage snapped over wholly to focus on him, as he'd expected. "What? With whom do you dare?"

"Haruno Sakura has agreed to bear my heir," he said quietly.

"What the hell?" Naruto snapped, suddenly tense against him, fingers biting brutally hard into his shoulder. "You can't do that... she's my wife!"

~*~

The whole village knew he had returned. A whole day earlier than they'd expected. He'd gone straight to the Hyuuga compound as soon as he arrived, Shikamaru told her, his gaze on her troubled and thoughtful. But she didn't go to meet him there. Instead, she went to the hospital to consult with Shizune over the status of several critical patients in the healing wards.

So it wasn't really a surprise when the door of Shizune's office crashed open behind them only an hour later. She'd felt the approach of his simmering aura even before he arrived. As always, her heart jumped into her throat when she looked at him. Her husband. The Rokudaime Hokage. Naruto.

He was so tall these days. She'd never quite gotten over how he'd grown. But every time she saw him after an absence of more than a day it struck her. He'd put on nearly three inches since the end of the Bijuu War. He was no longer the short, intense, utterly reckless boy he'd been but a tall, moderately thoughtful, powerful man. Yet he was still Naruto. Still the one she'd come to love so utterly and completely during those terrible months. And even more in the years since.

But now the bright blue eyes were shadowed with pain. The broad shoulders were set. The marked cheeks were taut with strain. His outrageous yellow hair stood as upright and disheveled as always. It felt exactly as wiry and unruly as it looked to the touch, she knew. And everything he felt, as always, was right there in his face. Pain. Hurt. Confusion. Longing. How could he be a ninja? How could he be their Hokage when he was so open? It still confounded her even as it soothed some deep part of her to see him still so open.

"You could have asked me first," he said roughly, the pain in his voice like a lash on her taut nerves.

She flinched. "Hokage-sama!" Shizune said, her gaze jumping quickly between the two of them before rising to her feet and snatching up Tonton from where the old pig snoozed on the floor beside her. "I'll be going now."

"This is your office…" Sakura began, flustered, but Naruto just stepped to the side, holding the door wider for Shizune to pass him. She left at a brisk trot, throwing one last worried glance back at Sakura before Naruto closed the door behind her with a quiet click.

That deliberate display of control broke her own.

Her eyes prickled. She couldn't look away from his face. Nor could she move. She felt welded to the chair in front of Shizune's desk. "I'm sorry… I couldn't think of any other way to stop him… and help Hinata…"

"He wouldn't have touched her without her consent."

She only stared at him, his image blurring in her eyes as tears welled. "He's s-so cold… h-how can you know?"

"Ah, Sakura-chan, I know him. He just wouldn't," he said, moving forward and dropping to his knees in front of her, taking her into his arms where she sat. He buried his face against her neck, the arms that cradled her close as steady as trees. She held herself stiff against him, feeling unworthy. He just pressed his mouth to the sickly throbbing pulse beneath her ear. "It's okay, I know you don't trust him again yet," he said, his lips warm on her skin, the words said nearly into her ear. She shuddered at the familiar caress and the first sob broke free. Tears streamed down her face as she bit her lower lip trying futilely to stop the flow.

"I b-betrayed y-you," she gasped, choking out the words. "H-how can you s-stand to t-touch me…?"

"Shhhhh," he said, lifting his head to look into her eyes. "I love you."

He'd already forgiven her. She saw it in his eyes. The man with the heart big enough to stop the ninja war from destroying the whole world. He'd already forgiven her. Her arms rose and clamped around him desperately then, sobs tearing from her throat.

"D-don't you un-understand what this m-means?" she said between sobs, clutching him close, feeling the heat of him soak into her so very cold body. It was shock, she dimly recognized. She was in shock.

"It means he gets to be free of the council is what it means. Finally," her husband said, his voice wry. "Maybe he'll relax at last."

"What?" she said on a half-startled laugh, drawing back to stare into his face. He was grinning sheepishly, his eyes bright. "Tell me you're not that stupid are you?" she said, a touch of anger rising through her agony.

"What? It's a good thing! Getting him back involved in the village again…"

She glared at him, tears drying on her cheeks in the face of her strengthening outrage. "Naruto, it means I'll have to sleep with Sasuke! And get pregnant! With his baby!"

"Yeah," he said, looking steadily into her eyes. "You will. But I'm gonna be there too."

Her mind froze in shock. "W-what?"

"You're my wife. My partner. You don't go anywhere I don't." He cupped her damp face with his hands. Pressed their foreheads together as she raised shaking hands to his arms, gripping him tight. "I'll be right beside you, Sakura-chan, every step of the way."

~*~

She'd discovered, when they first got together, that sex with Naruto was a little like falling into a cheap porn movie. Which made some sense, when she thought about it later, considering who exactly he'd spent most of his adolescent years training with. It had been a little disappointing, however, to her long-denied inner romantic. But at least fun once she'd got used to it. Yes. Definitely fun.

She'd just never imagined sex would end up being mostly like a spar. Vigorous and wild and exhausting. Or that there would be laughter and teasing leavened with a kind of awkward, desperate tenderness that made her cry sometimes when she was alone later to remember it.

She'd known the mechanics of sex well enough. You didn't get to be a medical ninja without knowing every detail of all functions of both gender's bodies after all. But clinical knowledge was far different than personal. And Naruto's knowledge was neither; it was pure porn.

For one thing, he used the filthiest words in bed. Embarrassing her at first, then making her angry and uncomfortable, until finally, after several months, she grew resigned to his complete lack of subtlety (why had she expected any?) and her annoyance slowly transmuted to quiet amusement.

But Naruto always made sure she had an orgasm before they were done. With his mouth or his hands. She'd been unable to orgasm from intercourse alone. Something that, she knew, disappointed him a little. But never for long. He'd just grin up shamelessly from between her legs and go back to licking her to release, his eyes bright with mischief and love.

So she felt it was her failing, not his, that she couldn't find satisfaction when he was lying closest to her heart.

But now, given the looming prospect of having to actually sleep with Sasuke, she was appalled to find herself struggling with revived girlish dreams again. He'd been her first crush. Her obsession. For so long he'd been perfect, in her eyes. Even through the years he spent willingly with Orochimaru. Not until he finally betrayed them all and proved her blind faith in him so deadly to everything else, everyone else she loved.

But... oh... what would it be like to touch him, she couldn't help thinking now. That pale, trained body. Those long, lean muscles. Those bitter, sullen lips. And to have him touch her with those hands that had formed so many deadly seals… would he be gentle? Or rough? Would he care about her own pleasure or only his own? Or would he even care for pleasure at all? It might just be duty alone to him.

Or was he a virgin? She had a hard time believing that after his years with Orochimaru. But she didn't want to think too closely what those years might have been like for him. She'd read Anko's records. Yamato-taicho's too. Spoken at length with Tsunade-sama about some of Orochimaru's... experiments. They hardly bore thinking about, yet Sasuke had to have endured a great deal of exposure to his teacher's deliberately cruel violations of the human body. Would they have warped him or had he been so obsessed with his own goal of vengeance that nothing around him had penetrated that shell?

Would he even know what to do or would it all be up to her?

That idea was more than a little frightening. Especially since Naruto intended to be there too. That would make it twice as unnerving. And four times as embarrassing. But... he'd be there to smile and laugh and use his filthy words too. On the both of them.

And, she found herself reluctantly wondering, what exactly, did Sasuke think of that? She hadn't tried to talk to him since that day. Though she knew Naruto had. Several times.

All she knew was that he hadn't released her from her commitment.

It would happen. She would bear his child to pass on the Uchiha bloodline. Now it only came down to when.

~*~

Sasuke was practicing taijutsu alone in the run-down remnants of the sole Uchiha house to have survived Pain's attack all those years ago. The village had long ago absorbed the rubble of the rest of the compound, save for this central building, and now shops and markets thrived where once his kin's blood had soaked into the thirsty ground.

But not only their blood. The blood of many other Konoha ninja had also been spilled there later. During the Akatsuki's invasions. During his own attack. During the battle with Madara and the bijuu.

The ghosts of his kin were not alone anymore.

As always, he felt Naruto before he heard him. The chakra inside the other was too strident to miss.

"Oi, there you are, Sasuke. I wanna talk to you," the Hokage said, feet thumping loudly onto the stone path that circled the swept-dirt yard.

He finished his drill, letting himself come to a collected halt in the center of the space, the plain wooden bo he'd been practicing with tucked vertically along his side. He was pleased to find his breathing calm, his muscles only warm though he'd been at it for more than four hours now. His endurance had greatly improved after his release from imprisonment more than two years ago. It was slow, but steady.

"What do you want?" he said, lifting his head but not turning to face the other.

Naruto shifted, the long coat he wore as Hokage rustling loudly in the silence. "You've heard, right? About my conditions."

"That you expect to watch me impregnate your wife with my heir?"

"Fuck," Naruto said, letting out a long breath after a moment of drawn silence. "It does sound pretty cold doesn't it?"

"It is cold," he said, letting his lip curl. "It is also your precious council's doing, so get used to it."

"But that's not how I meant it." There was the sound of a foot kicking against dirt. "I just don't want Sakura-chan to feel like she's cheating on me."

Sasuke lifted his head and turned to face the other incredulously. "You are still an idiot, aren't you? Of course she'll be cheating on you."

"No, it's not cheating if I'm right there, asshole," Naruto said sharply, his coat rustling louder as he walked close enough that Sasuke could feel the edges of his chakra aura licking at his own. "And I'm going to be. Right. There."

It was almost distracting, the strength that flowed from the other man. Heady. Tempting. He'd felt that pull for years. Fought it every step of the way. Bitterly. Fiercely. Until he finally realized it wasn't Naruto he was fighting... "You can stop this, you know. Just tell her you changed your mind." He sneered deliberately now. "She'll probably be relieved, since she still hates me."

"No," Naruto said quietly. "She's disappointed in you. But she still loves you, Sasuke, underneath it." He froze. There was a touch of anguish in Naruto's voice now. Regret. Longing. Sasuke well knew how long Naruto had loved Sakura. Forever.

Naruto stayed silent for a while. And Sasuke waited. Standing still, face averted. Knowing there was more coming that he really didn't want to listen to.

"I never told her, you know. About us."

Us. It had been at the heart of every battle they fought. Every shouting match. Every blow they exchanged. Their entire lives. He doubted Sakura, even as oblivious as her obsession with him had made her back then, had truly missed it. No, somewhere inside she understood, he was sure of it. But even as he thought that, he knew Naruto was wrong. Sakura didn't love him anymore, she loved Naruto. What she was, was jealous of him and the obvious bond that he and Naruto shared.

Had always shared.

And maybe her rash offer hadn't just been made to try to save Hinata. Maybe it had been to get back at him too.

"What us?" he said coldly, knowing it would wind the other up and distract him.

But not this time. The contact was light, the fingers barely able to grip his shoulder before he realized just how close Naruto had come and stepped swiftly back. He put another step between them for good measure, inwardly cursing the powerful chakra glow that masked the other man's more subtle movements when he was near.

"Don't touch me," he said sharply, closing lids over suddenly aching eyes. Naruto stayed still, the steady glow of his chakra flickering briefly in dismay. His own chakra had been too disturbed after breaking that seal in the Hyuuga compound to sense him this completely. He almost wished for that pain back again. Anything to distract him from this pointless longing.

"You're not touching her without touching me too," Naruto said quietly. "And you tied yourself to her promise openly… so just how bad do you want done with your parole, Sasuke?"

The eyes in his head ached. His brother's eyes. Blind. Useless. Powerless. And always, the longer he spent in Naruto's presence, the more they ached. For not the first time he wished for his own eyes back.

"Bad enough to put up with you, dobe," he said, voice cold and fatal. And all bluff. They both knew it.

Naruto laughed then. Loud and long and honest. "Oh man, it's been years since you called me that! 'Dobe', ho crap, I'd almost forgotten." Then he moved like the wind and his arms closed tight around Sasuke's chest, his body pressing to his back and Sasuke stood frozen and aching as the heat of the other reached out and surrounded him.

Naruto's lips brushed beneath his ear, against his pulse. His voice was low, pained. "She's going to find out. When we do this. She'll finally see how we are." He felt the shudder run through the other man. Kept his arms firmly down at his own sides and stayed stiff in the other's hold as Itachi's eyes throbbed wildly in his head.

"I just…I don't want her to hate me."

And the pulsing in his eyes sped up. The throbbing ache making his brain seem to spin, his thoughts whirl. Until it was all he could do to remember where his will ended and chaos began. His body relaxing back, at last, into that bright, shining strength behind him as that line blurred beyond recovery. But warm, steady arms held him tight. Secure. He tilted his head back until his cheek brushed against wiry hair. Opened his eyelids to see the summer sky over Konoha, clear and blue and pure above him again through his brother's eyes.

"Idiot. If I can't hate you, she never will."

~*~

"So," Sai said as he appeared silently beside her as she walked back to the Hokage's Residence from the hospital the next day after her shift. "Have you done your research on the best positions for threesomes? Seduction jutsu are primarily a kunoichi discipline, after all."

She came to an abrupt halt, her hands fisting tight on the strap of her scroll bag.

"You didn't just say that to me," she said dangerously, glaring at his blandly smiling face.

"Yes I did," he said, his eyes little more than amused slits. Even after all these years she sometimes had trouble telling if he was serious or not. Though he had gotten better at social interactions, he was still not very well socialized so it was hard to spot when he was deliberately being a jerk.

"Sai, go away. Now," she said with a weary sigh, rolling her eyes and choosing to treat his question as one of his pranks instead of taking full offense today.

She resumed her walk toward home, ignoring the black-clad shape that followed her after a brief pause. She had other things to worry about instead. Like why Naruto had decided to make his position on her promise to Sasuke so damned public. It was embarrassing as hell to hear him sound so proud that his wife was going to bear the next Uchiha heir. It was more than a little disturbing too. If he'd been anyone other than Naruto she'd wonder if her husband was trying get back at her, or mock her in some way. But Naruto wasn't like that. He truly was proud.

And he wasn't shy about saying he intended to be fully involved too. Which meant the rumors were flying everywhere now. And even in a ninja village, she was starting to get the kind of side-long, wary looks that had once been reserved for Kakashi-sensei and Jiraiya-sannin.

"I can't go away. I've been given an order," Sai said, dipping his head to her with formal politeness, that terrible fake-smile still on his face as he moved up beside her. He had a real smile too. She'd seen it a few times. This wasn't one of them, unfortunately. Which meant the creep was playing with her after all.

"What order?" she ground out, shifting her heavy scroll bag higher on her shoulder.

"The Hokage has requested that I escort you to a location of his specification at a certain time," he said cheerfully.

She lifted a brow at him. "And that would be?"

Sai's hands flashed through a dozen seals too quickly for her to follow, but the start of it had at least looked like a transportation jutsu. "Now. And, a surprise, Sakura-san." Sai said as Konoha disappeared around them.

~*~

Sasuke stood at the back of the ramp with his arms folded over his chest, watching Naruto where he stood with his hands on his hips staring out over the edge down to the pool far below where the water crashed. The pounding roar of the huge waterfall was thankfully muted by the thickness of the surrounding greenery and distance.

This place wasn't familiar to him at all. Apparently it had been one of Root's strongholds many years ago. But the stone buildings carved into the canyon walls, the rusting machinery and the arching ramps across the broad space were wound around with heavy vines, trees and flowering plants of all kinds. He thought he recognized a disproportionate mix of medicinal or edible plants among them. Prey animals and birds abounded. It had to be deliberate.

Standing between them, Yamato and Kakashi were watching them both, Kakashi's one exposed eye fixed mostly on him. He refused to return the other man's look.

"You have to admit, Hokage-san, this is a pretty odd situation, even for you," Kakashi said, hands in his pockets, shoulders slumped. Yamato, beside him, shifted once on his feet then went utterly still in the way only long-term ANBU could.

Naruto spun around then, the white coat edged with flames swirling around his legs. The grin on his face was wide and just a touch rueful. Self-awareness had come to the idiot late, but it had finally come.

"It is, isn't it?" Naruto said. His bright blue gaze locked on Sasuke's for a moment before shifting back to the other two jounin. He absorbed the heat of that look without reacting outwardly at all.

"I have to say I'm kind of relieved Sakura didn't just kill you both," Kakashi said, mouth twisting under his mask. "Not to mention, it's a little surprising that Sasuke somehow got his sight back."

"It's not that surprising," Naruto said with a shrug even as Sasuke silently willed the idiot to keep his mouth shut for once. "It's happened before. He might lose it again too."

"Oh?" Kakashi said, turning to face Sasuke completely now. "So you have some idea how it happens?"

Sasuke met Kakashi's steady gaze flatly. "Yes," he said, breaking his silence at last.

"Ah," Kakashi said, his gaze flickering briefly toward Naruto. Then his eye curved above his mask in one of his knowing grins. Inwardly Sasuke cursed. There was no denying his former teacher's perception was just as good as it had always been.

"Hokage-sama, I take it your meeting with Shizune-san went well?" Yamato said into the bristling silence.

Naruto actually blushed. Then he jammed one fist into a pocket of his blue uniform pants as he scratched hard at the back of his head with the other. "Weelll, yeah, I guess," he said. "I'm not sure about all that cycle stuff and timing and things. And there's women's jutsu involved too that make no sense... I mean why...?"

"Kunoichi have to protect themselves, idiot, you know that," Sasuke cut in sharply. "Don't make more of it than it is."

Naruto frowned. "I still don't see why I couldn't just ask Sakura-chan about all that..."

"No!" Kakashi and Yamato said at the same time, their hands held out in warning. Sasuke snorted and shook his head. "Idiot."

"Trust me, Naruto-sama, it's better you didn't," Yamato said, looking a little green for a moment. "Even the best wives have very little sense of humor about that kind of thing."

Kakashi laughed and patted the other man bracingly on the shoulder. "Mitsuko has trained you well, eh?"

Yamato winced again. "Ah, yes. You could say that."

Sasuke supposed Mitsuko was Yamato's wife. He'd heard the man had married another ANBU at the end of the war. And that he already had two small children to his name with a third on the way. It seemed he'd taken well to fatherhood. It was rather amazing he'd done so, considering he'd been one of Orochimaru's more successful experiments, Sasuke mused.

An ink-dark bird soared up from the canyon below and circled around their group once before swooping down to land on Naruto's shoulder. It cocked its head at him and eyed him from dull black eyes before pecking the Hokage sharply on the cheek. Naruto slapped at it irritably and the chakra-construct vanished in a splash of ink.

"Damn it, Sai, you're still an ass," the Hokage said, glaring down at the ink stains on his white coat and hand. Then he lifted his head and shot Kakashi a wry look. "Well, you're in charge for a few days, Kakashi. Try not to mess up my office too bad. Iruka-sensei gets pissed."

"Now now, would I do that?" Kakashi said mildly, his one eye curving in an innocent way that fooled no one. Beside him Yamato snorted and rolled his eyes. "I can hear the yelling already," the jounin muttered. "Why you don't just—" Kakashi shot Yamato a sharp look that had the other jounin's mouth snapping shut in the middle of his sentence and his eyes rolling broadly again. Silenced, but not cowed.

Naruto looked over at him then, his gaze unusually thoughtful, maybe even a bit worried, and Sasuke met his look with a calm one of his own.

"Right," the Rokudaime Hokage said with a nod. "C'mon, Sasuke."

~*~

It took her only a moment to realize where Sai had brought her. The rich, heavy scent of growing things filled the cool, moist air around them. Huge trees loomed, laden with vines and leaves and flowering parasite plants. Only thin shafts of sunlight penetrated the dense cover of green above. The shafts sparkled off the water beads that dewed lower-level plants. Around them was the busy chatter of birds and the cries of other small creatures. Monkeys. Insects. The husky cough of a hunting cat.

In the distance, muffled by the layers of trees and vegetation, she could hear the roar of a waterfall. This was Root's old canyon fortress, confiscated by the Hokage himself after the war. And given over to the Emergency Corps to develop as a concealed and defensible back up source of food, materials and medical supplies. It was a place where few were allowed to come. Yet it was heavily guarded on the outside. That made it a very private place.

She looked around then with a touch of anxiety, but they appeared to be alone. Beside her Sai crouched down, pulled a brush and his inks from his belt, and with a few deft lines drew a small bird on the blank surface of a scroll he unrolled across his thigh.

The chakra-creation sprang from the paper in a light spatter of ink. It screeched once, then flew straight up into the shadows of the trees above. She looked at him inquiringly but he just capped his ink bottle and carefully cleaned his brush, remaining silent while giving her his disgustingly fake smile.

Annoyed, her nerves jumping, and not in the mood to deal with him at all anymore, she looked around their location more closely. Where they had appeared was in a small clearing set in deepest shadow beneath a gleaming, polished wooden gate carved with the symbols of the Fire Country and Konoha. A set-stone path whose stones were green with moss led beneath the gate and wound away through the forest back toward the cavern walls and got lost beneath the trees behind her.

"There is a small cottage near the canyon wall back there," Sai said, rising to his feet beside her and pointing down the facing path. "It has been stocked with supplies enough for a week. Would you like to see it?"

"No," she said, blinking her eyes before swallowing hard and lifting her scroll bag off over her head. She dropped it at his feet with a thud. "Take that back to the Hokage Mansion when you go."

He bent down gracefully to pick up her bag and sling the strap across his own body. "Why are you crying?"

"Because," she said, her voice tight. She squeezed her eyes closed but the tears wouldn't stop leaking out.

"Is it because you think there's no romance in this process?" he asked curiously

She laughed once. Harshly. "Go away."

"He thinks you'll be more comfortable away from the village," Sai said softly. She could sense his intent gaze on the side of her face. "He wanted you to feel at ease about this duty."

She laughed harshly again and threw her head back, opening her burning eyes to stare up at the trees above. "Oh, you're so not helping things, Sai."

He sighed. Deeply and obviously. Then he stiffened fractionally beside her. Training made her glance over at him warily, her other senses already straining to detect possible danger. But he only caught her gaze somberly and nodded once, his hands flying through seals. He disappeared silently in a tiny swirl of dust just as she caught motion from the corner of her eye.

She turned as Naruto landed on the path behind her, his Hokage's coat swirling white and wide around him. A dark shadow landed beside him. Her gaze skittered away from that shape to focus on her husband's face. He smiled when he saw her, the smile dying away as he noticed her tears. He hurried over to her, concern shadowing his eyes enough to make her look away in guilt.

"Sakura-chan! What's the matter?"

As Naruto drew her into a tight hug her gaze skipped past him to land involuntarily on Sasuke behind him. Where it caught on his gaze. Held. And as his eyes narrowed slightly she realized with a start that he could actually see her.

"How?" she gasped, holding his dark gaze in amazement.

"It happens sometimes," Sasuke said quietly, his expression flat and cool. "It doesn't last long."

"Hey, hey, why are you crying Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked again, tensing slightly. She frowned and pulled back to look at him, only to have him cup her face in one hand and kiss her. She shook him off self-consciously, face flaming to have him do this in front of a Sasuke who could actually see it.

"I'm fine," she said, burying her face against his shoulder and hugging him close. It had somehow seemed more possible to contemplate actually going forward with this when Sasuke was blind. But it suddenly seemed too much now. Yet she'd given her word. She had to see it through. "I just... I want to get it over with."

Naruto tensed more, his breath coming out of him in a heavy sigh.

"Okay," he said, quietly. "There's a house..."

She drew back, keeping her face averted, but he stubbornly kept hold of her arms. "Sai told me."

"Sakura-chan..." he began, his voice plaintive, his hands sliding down to squeeze hers gently.

She dropped her gaze to the moss under their feet. "I gave my word, Naruto. Everyone knows. And... and it will help him be free. You said it yourself."

The silence was heavy and awkward until he broke it.

"Okay," he said finally. "Let's go."

~*~

The small cottage the Hokage had ordered prepared was only a few minutes walk down the shadowed forest path. Sasuke followed behind the other two, noting how Sakura wound her fingers desperately tight with Naruto's. She hadn't looked at him again, but he knew she was aware of him. Her unease and her dismay practically crackled from her skin.

No, it was pretty clear she still hated him. He was surprised to find the evidence bothered him more than he'd expected. Unless it was for Naruto's sake. The other man would hate to be wrong about his beloved wife after all.

They left their shoes on the porch in silence, Naruto taking the lead and padding barefoot up to the door panels, sliding them all the way open for Sakura to pass through.

Inside was small, but tidy and clean. From the layout, it looked to be little more than one main room, with a bathing room and a tiny kitchen likely off the back. It was all new construction. He could sense lingering traces of chakra in the wood. Likely Yamato's work then.

Behind him, Naruto was taking off his long coat. Then he unzipped his flak vest and shed that too, leaving himself in a short-sleeved black undershirt.

Sasuke turned his gaze up. The ceiling was high and pointed, with slats to let in air and light near the peak and wooden support beams criss-crossing the open space. The walls on three sides were solid, only the front was composed of sliding screens. The back rooms were divided by wooden sliding doors. It felt surprisingly secure, and he did a swift scan to check for protective seals. They were of the warning type only, easing his mind greatly.

The main room floor was dominated by a thick, extra-wide futon. Several blankets and pillows had been stacked near the foot of it. There were two small oil lamps in one corner on iron stands, shedding bright pools of light across the bedding.

Sakura stopped dead when she saw it, her hands fisting at her sides.

He gave an inward sigh over Naruto's obtuseness. It was practical and comfortable, yes. But obviously – even after all these years – the idiot still hadn't quite figured out just how much of a sappy romantic his deadly ninja wife actually was.

"They told me," Naruto said, striding over to the futon to look down at it, his back to them both, "that I shouldn't screw you anymore, Sakura-chan, until you get knocked-up by Sasuke. So that's why I haven't."

Sasuke closed his eyes in disgust.

"That's okay, Naruto. I understand," Sakura said, her voice tight. He heard the idiot quickly cross the floor and take his wife into his arms. "It's not that I didn't want to..." he muttered to her.

"I know," she said, her voice quavering with emotion. Abruptly he heard the sound of kissing. It was a little too energetic and wet for the moment. He opened his eyes reluctantly to find Naruto practically devouring Sakura's mouth, his tongue pushed deep inside. But she had her arms wound around him, her hands in his hair, and seemed at least resigned to being ravished rather than comforted.

He stepped forward. He saw Sakura tense at his approach, her senses tuned to his presence, but Naruto seemed oblivious. Seemed. He well knew otherwise.

"You're still an idiot," he said harshly, separating them by the simple matter of shoving Naruto across the room and into the wall. He held the other man in place there with his palm spread flat over his racing heart, while he cupped his other hand over Sakura's shoulder.

Naruto's chakra aura enveloped him instantly. He felt the raw heat of him searing through his palm, sending waves tingling up his arm. In sharp contrast, Sakura's aura was cool, composed and contained. A soft, sleek presence beneath his hand. Like her skin.

He turned away from Naruto, who was glowering at him darkly and obviously fighting the urge to take a swing at him, and caught Sakura's shocked gaze. She gasped as he looked at her from beneath half-lowered lids, and he sensed her heart-rate jump erratically.

She had grown up. Her face was no longer round and soft with girlhood, but sculpted and lean. The skin of her face was clear and bore no major scars. Her soft pink hair had been allowed to grow long again, and she wore it in a single loose braid down her back. Her green banded hitai-ate covered her forehead, and two shorter tendrils of hair had been pulled out to fall over her temples, softening the harsh effect considerably.

She wasn't beautiful in the usual sense, but she was handsome. And strong.

Her eyes were wide and slightly red from her earlier crying bout and her lips were slightly puffy from Naruto's recent assault. But she was still Sakura. The girl he'd fully intended to kill after Danzo's death, back when she so foolishly came to try to kill him hoping to spare Naruto that task.

He let his gaze linger on her mouth. Watched her lips part, her tongue dart out to wet them nervously. Then he skimmed his gaze down her throat to the base of her neck, counting the sharp pulse-beats there for a moment before letting his eyes drift down to her chest.

Her breasts were not large, but they were high and tight, the nipples already showing as sharp peaks beneath her form-fitted red vest. He wondered how they would change after his child was born. Her breasts began to rise and fall more quickly as she lost control of her breathing under his gaze, no longer breathing properly from the belly but from the top of her lungs. Her waist was slim with muscle and her hips flared gently below to firm, strong thighs.

Beneath his other hand, he could feel Naruto's heart rate rising too.

"Bastard, don't just stand there looking at her like that," Naruto snapped. Sakura trembled under his hand, her breath sucking in sharply.

He swiveled his head slowly to look down his arm at Naruto, raising one brow at him mockingly as he looked at that annoyed face. But Naruto was looking down at Sakura instead. Watching her carefully.

"I haven't seen her properly since the Falls," he said quietly. "Not since I gave up my own eyes."

Naruto's breath caught sharply then too, his gaze flashing up to lock with his at last. Sasuke let his hand slide up Sakura's shoulder to curve around the back of her neck, drawing her with him when he stepped toward Naruto and slanted his mouth over the other man's.

Warm. Always so warm. And slick and eager. And rough. The way he liked it best. But Sakura didn't.

He resisted the urge to give in and just meet that eager challenge like always and softened his mouth instead. Naruto's hand fisted in the back of his hair as he tried to deepen the kiss. But Sasuke didn't let him, using strength to hold himself away and gentling his mouth and tongue even more. Just sliding his tongue along the seam of their lips over and over and only nipping lightly at the other man's mouth until Naruto was practically growling with frustration.

Then he pulled back. Looked into hot blue eyes from beneath half-raised lids and smiled nastily.

"Kiss her like that. Save the maulings for me."

"The hell," Naruto muttered, his face flaming, while behind him Sakura was trembling and making little distressed noises. He turned to her and drew her close to his side, tangling her legs with Naruto's while his stood steady between them. He bent closer to her lips, watching her from beneath mostly-closed lids as she shot an uncertain glance toward Naruto.

"Kiss me, Sakura," he whispered before their mouths met. It was open manipulation that worked far too well. She let out a sound almost like a squeak and melted against him, her mouth opening helplessly beneath his own. He used his tongue to trace her upper lip, stroking tender flesh gently. She tasted like Naruto. A fact that tugged at his control. But he kept his mouth gentle, his tongue soft and caressing, and drew the kiss out until she was limp and relaxed and whimpering against him.

He tested his own control carefully. Weighed his reaction against theirs. It could work. He could draw this out. Have Sakura panting for him and eager enough that putting his semen in her would be easy. But if he drew it out long enough, gave her enough pleasure, made her limp and begging and enthralled, then it was possible even Naruto's patience would finally break.

And then he'd get what he wanted most.

~*~

The first kiss Sasuke gave her was like nothing she'd had before. And was everything she'd long ago imagined a kiss from Sasuke would be. Sensual. Firm. Delicious.

She lost herself in it willingly, letting herself get tangled inseparably between dream and reality. Her imagination snared tight by his whispered demand. She gave herself over to the pure magic of his mouth with only a sigh. His lips were gentle. Teasing. Knowing.

He was no innocent. Nor was he a brute. And he kissed like a dream.

He'd even kissed Naruto the same way. Naruto...

She sighed as Sasuke's tongue flicked lightly at hers, dancing teasingly with it in her mouth instead of spearing deep, and gave in to sheer delight. He knew when and where to touch. His hand not grasping greedily but caressing gently as it skimmed down her back, along her side and drew her close with a steady pull on her hip. His body wasn't cold at all but warm. Heating her own dangerously. His bare chest beneath his half-opened shirt pressing her aching breasts flat within her vest.

His lips teased hers now by drawing back for a moment. Letting her reactions build slowly. Then returning to coax her response higher instead of demanding it.

He moved them away from the wall, releasing his hold on Naruto at last. Drawing his other arm around her instead. Cradling her gently against his body as his mouth ghosted across her skin, lips trailing down her jaw to her throat. She let her head fall back with a groan as he bit gently down on the tendons in her neck. The sudden sharp contrast sent shivers of heated desire further through her body.

She moaned and bit her lip, letting her head fall all the way back, her braid thumping heavy and momentarily distracting against her buttocks.

Then she heard Naruto give a low groan and his hand fumbled for one of hers, gripping it tight. She let him have it, involuntarily comparing the damp, burning heat of his grip to the other's sleek warmth as she ran her free hand up Sasuke's back and into his hair. The dark strands were as smooth as they looked. Cool and vital to her touch. She buried her hand deep, cradling the back of his head as he bent over her, his mouth on her collarbone now and drifting toward the deep V front of her vest.

She whimpered and tossed her head as his mouth found that shadowy hollow. His breath washing warm on the side of her breast. Her skin seemed to swell and glow, her nerves sparkling with sensations she'd never imagined.

Her footing disappeared from beneath her as he swept her up and laid her gently back on the wide futon. He raised his head slowly and looked at her with those dark eyes mostly hidden beneath heavy lids. He held one hand over her breast for a moment before slowly lowering it, the warmth of his palm pressing over it making her nipple ache and throb. He stroked his fingertips along the upper swell and down the side as she panted and groaned.

It was incredible. It was magic. It was everything she'd ever long-ago dreamed being in Sasuke's arms would ever be. She let go of her fears, her doubts and let herself float off into pure sensuality.

All while her inner self stood back for some reason and silently watched.

~*~

She was wet and slick and hot. And her body was far tighter than he'd expected, her soft flesh holding him close all along his encroaching length. She was breathing fast and hard, the occasional hitching gasps almost like desperate cries. Her bared breasts shook slightly with the motion. The stiff nipples reddened by the work he had done on them with teeth and lips.

Sasuke finished pushing himself into Sakura and held his body still above hers as she shuddered beneath him. Her eyes were closed tight, her head thrown back over the arm he'd placed under her shoulders, the blunt fingernails of her free hand digging deep into the muscles of his lower back. Her strong thighs were raised to gripped his hips, but did nothing to impede his motion, trembling instead with small spasms as she simply clung to him.

"Oh fucking damn it fuck," Naruto was muttering, his own free arm folded over his bent head where he crouched beside them. His other hand still gripped Sakura's desperately, his knuckles almost white with strain. Why she wasn't crying out against the pressure on her hand Sasuke didn't know. But he was well aware the other man had stopped watching the moment Sasuke put the head of his penis against the entrance of his wife's vagina.

But somehow it hadn't taken nearly as long as he'd thought it would. Naruto was already almost to the breaking point and he'd hardly started.

Sasuke sucked in a steadying breath and rolled his hips back, pulling slowly out of Sakura nearly to separation before pushing back quickly with a firm thrust. Her body was so hot and damp there was a soft squelching sound as he went deep. She cried out, keening low in her throat. Naruto flinched.

He leaned forward, shifting his weight high and rolling his pelvic bone carefully against the soft flesh hiding her clitoris. She cried out again, higher this time, her mouth falling open to let out deep, desperate gasps. Her whole body was wracked with small shudders then.

Just like Karin. Every time she had urged him to bite deep into her flesh to heal himself.

He shook the memory from his head in annoyance, lowering his mouth to Sakura's neck and opening it wide to heat her throat with his quickening breath. Just letting the edges of his teeth brush her flushed, unmarked skin. He breathed deep against the urge to bite down and her scent filled his senses. Musk and fresh sweat and Naruto. Then he began to move in earnest. Sliding into her and out again. Steady, firm. He felt her heart racing faster and faster in her chest as he stroked her deep inside and out. Slick. Hot. Smooth. Not long now…

"N-no!"

As her body began to ripple with the first signs of orgasm, suddenly she was fighting him, her hand shoving at his waist with implacable strength. Forcing him back. Away. Her thighs clenching tight against his hips, stalling any more motion.

"Stop! Please stop Sasuke! Stop!" she shouted and yanked on Naruto's arm. The other man's head jerked up. His blue eyes wide with shock.

Before either of them could react further he had rolled away, pulling out of her as gently as her panic would let him. Which wasn't very. She winced and curled her body tightly away from his, tears already welling in her eyes.

"What the hell? Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, sitting up and gathering her half-naked body into his arms. She buried her face in his neck and clamped her own arms around him tightly in return, drawing her knees up close to her body in rejection.

Sasuke sat back on his heels and watched warily.

"Not like this. I can't. I can't," she was chanting frantically into Naruto's skin. And Sasuke realized, suddenly, that no matter her own preferences she was trying to stay loyal to the stupid idiot by cheating herself out of an orgasm… even though she'd already planned to carry someone else's child. In his mind it was a clear waste of energy. If only she would think of it as a mission it wouldn't matter at all. But who was he kidding? When Naruto was involved energy was always wasted on pointless things.

"Not like this? Or not at all? Sakura-chan?" Naruto murmured gently to her with quiet perception, his own jealous discomfort likely already forgotten as he smoothed his hand down her disheveled braid.

"I thought I could," she said, her voice muffled and wan. "I thought… but not this way… it's so unfair to you…"

Naruto raised his head abruptly then and met his gaze. The other man's look was guilty and pained. And Sasuke's blood began to heat dangerously in his veins, his pulse to throb sharper in his throat as if at the approach of danger. He watched Naruto closely through his brother's eyes. Waited.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said, bending his head to press his lips tenderly to her temple. "Sakura-chan, don't cry. There's something I should have told you… a long time ago… 'bout Sasuke and me…"

"It's not unfair to him at all, Sakura," Sasuke broke in on the awkwardly stumbling words, his voice flat, frozen. "He's finally getting both of us. Just like he always wanted."

Naruto glared at him over her head, hot and sharp, even as Sakura made a strangled noise in her throat and struggled to sit upright in the idiot's lap.

She stared at Naruto in shocked disbelief. "Both of…? You want… both of us?"

"Goddamnit, you bastard," Naruto snarled at him, his face flushed. "You make it sound so cold." Sasuke just sneered back at him, unmoved. This moment had been far too long in coming. He was tired of waiting.

"Naruto?" Sakura said quietly, her roiling chakra belying her calm words. "Is that true? You always wanted Sasuke like you wanted me?"

The bright blue eyes were haunted. But even he knew it was too late to evade now.

"You were both the best things I'd ever had happen in my life, after Iruka-sensei," Naruto said quietly, his hands flexing against Sakura's back. She didn't try to shrug him off. Yet. "It just worked out that way. I couldn't choose. I never gave up… on either of you… but I didn't want you to have to be stuck with a perv like me forever, Sakura-chan… I wanted to get you what you really wanted…"

"Don't go there, idiot," Sasuke said sharply. Too late.

Even upset, her chakra control was perfect. The blow was fast and accurate and brutal. The fist she buried in Naruto's stomach sent him flying out the opened doors and backwards onto the path beyond. He didn't even try to cushion his landing either, the fool, letting his head smack back hard onto the stone. He lay there, gasping for air through a paralyzed diaphragm while Sakura rose to her feet, her body shaking violently, and glared out at him.

Her red vest hung open around her body, the only piece of clothing he'd left her with. Her long braid shifted against her bare, rounded butt, pink against ivory. Her own moisture glistened on her taut inner thighs. He could smell her recent arousal, warm and musky and thick, in the air. He couldn't look away.

"I was feeling unworthy! And guilty! Damn you!" she shouted, her voice tight. "For still loving him even while I loved you!"

Naruto had rolled onto his side, still struggling to get air with a hand pressed uselessly to his gut, but his head whipped up at her words and stricken eyes fixed on his wife.

"And all this time… all this…" She stopped then, letting her head sag forward, her clenched fists shaking at her sides. Sasuke eyed her warily. Sensing the pained turmoil within her. Not knowing, especially now, how she would break.

"You…" she said, her voice gone quiet. And he knew she was talking to him now. "You never loved me."

"Didn't I?" he said softly, Itachi's eyes aching in his head. His brother had known. His brother had always understood his deepest underneath. "I wanted to kill you, Sakura."

Her head whipped around and she stared at him with pained, tear-wet eyes.

"I wanted to kill everything I loved so I could keep my revenge alive."

Naruto was coughing out in the yard, finally able to draw breath. Sasuke lifted one hand and brushed his fingertips gently across her pale cheek, letting them linger on her kiss-swollen mouth.

"I would have killed you too. But he never let me be that stupid."

The tears welled from her eyes, streamed unchecked down her face. He'd seen her like that far too many times. While looking at him. Just as she was now.

"It's your right to hate me."

He closed his eyelids, letting his fingers slip away from her face only have his hand caught and pressed back, her lips moving against his fingertips, her grip almost painful.

"I did hate you," she said, her voice raw, sobbing. "I hated you so much. Because I still love you. So much."

She moved first, turning and reaching for him, but it was he who gathered her close, pressing her strong, bare body tight against his own in disbelieving wonder.

Her mouth sought his and he crushed it, finesse and skill lost to the shuddering ache of need. Her feminine heat rising to meet his desire. But as focused on Sakura as he was, he still felt Naruto's anguish like a blade against his skin. Knew when the other man rose to his feet. Started to turn away.

Sakura felt it too.

"Not another step," she snapped, breaking away from his mouth. But not out of his arms.

"Idiot," he added, lifting his head and looking down at her. Her face was glowing. Relaxed. The tear-streaks shining as marks of courage instead of pain.

Naruto had frozen facing half away from them, his head lowered, his shoulders tense.

"You made me a promise," she said, glaring at that stiff back.

His head lifted slightly. "I…"

"You promised to be here for me. Husband."

He turned, finally, shock plain on his face. "Sakura-chan… you… you still…?"

She lifted an arm and stretched her hand toward Naruto, fingers spread wide. He shifted, dropping one of his own away from her side. Making an opening. Watched the shock fade into amazed joy as Naruto's gaze bounced between the two of them. United.

"It's always been about all of us together, idiot," Sasuke said, his own eyes disturbingly wet. "Come back here and face it."

~*~

It's still not fair, her inner self said as she swiftly fell back under the spell of Sasuke's expert skill again. There was an Uchiha heir to conceive now that they'd sorted out their muddled feelings. And much to Naruto's intense discomfort they'd all actually talked. Even Sasuke. But they had this private cabin all to themselves for an entire week. With no responsibilities other than to each other to fulfill.

So they hadn't waited any longer before starting again. Not with Naruto there, urging them on. He always had recovered his spirits faster than either of them. The utter pervert, she thought fondly.

It hadn't taken her long to get used to the bold, possessive way Naruto touched Sasuke either. Or how Sasuke eagerly touched him in return. Frankly, watching them kiss each other was both hotter and more romantic than she'd expected it to be. Nothing like that long-ago accidental kiss in the classroom. Especially when they both then turned and did the exact same thing to her.

The way they felt about each other had always been there to see if one wanted to, she realized now.

But she was still a little surprised at how calmly she was taking all of it. It might just have been the shock of finding out that Sasuke had always loved her too. Or that he'd been sleeping with Naruto for longer than Naruto had been sleeping with her.

Hm. She might have to get them both for that. Later.

But right now, her husband lay propped up behind her, his bare arm draped over her body, his hand gripping Sasuke's pale hip tightly, his eager erection like a hot bar against her back. He'd turned her head toward his and was kissing her carefully too, his mouth softer and more gentle than usual. As if he'd taken Sasuke's chiding straight to heart.

No, it isn't fair, she thought at her inner self bitterly. Because I should finally be able to enjoy this without you bitching at me.

Tsunade-sama said you had the control for it.

Sasuke's lips were doing something to her nipple that made her breath catch and her body ripple with pleasure as she buried her hands deep in his silky hair. Control? What's that? she thought giddily through the rising erotic haze.

Her inner self glared. You're one of the best medical ninja in all Konoha. You know how to make this right. So do it.

~*~

Sakura slept the sleep of the physically exhausted sprawled out on the futon beside him, her body covered by a warm blanket. Her long pale hair spilled out across the pillows, hiding her face. He reached over and cleared it away from her mouth so she wouldn't feel smothered. She shifted a little in her sleep, murmuring at his proximity, but not waking.

Ah. It was true then. The greatest trust a ninja could show was to sleep on in another's presence.

He looked across her sleeping form then to catch the gleam of the other man's eyes watching him.

He sat upright again, looping his arms loosely around his raised knees. The night air was cool in this deep grotto, the waterfall's steady roar a calming white noise in the distance. It was fine to sit there naked in the near-darkness until a chill breeze circled within suddenly, making the lone candle dance. Behind him he heard the pad of bare feet on wood as Naruto rose and moved past him, naked and golden in the dancing light, to close the sliding doors. He left a small gap open. For better air circulation.

"You can still see," Naruto said quietly, turning around to face him again, the floor creaking slightly beneath his foot. Even after all these years, Naruto didn't move like a good shinobi should. He still made far too much noise. Sasuke felt his groin stir as Naruto paced back, watching how his thick muscles shifted easily beneath his skin.

"Yes," Sasuke said, tilting his head back to examine the pattern of the roof beams again. Yamato's aesthetics were elegant even in a quickly-made shelter like this. The man had great skill with his stolen gift.

"Why is it lasting now?" Naruto settled beside him with a soft thump. The warmth of his chakra aura instantly spread over Sasuke. He resisted the sudden urge to move closer and just lowered his gaze to fix it on the other man again instead. He met that searching gaze steadily.

"Something broke Itachi's final seal," he said, letting his eyes whirl briefly with the Sharingan before relaxing them back to normal. Naruto just made a soft noise of disgust in his throat, not dismayed at all by the return of his greatest weapon.

"Well shit. That means I'll have to send you out on missions again."

"I doubt the council will allow that," Sasuke said, all inflection leeched from his voice. To fight again… to use his skills. It was too much to expect.

Naruto's smile was predatory for a moment. "I'm the fucking Hokage aren't I? I can do what I want." Then he laughed a little bitterly and scratched at the back of his head. "Yeah, they'll have a shit-fit. But I could sure use more good people out there. Things are still crazy."

"Hm," Sasuke said, letting his mouth curl slightly. Only Naruto considered him a 'good' person. And now Sakura too. No one else trusted him. Certainly Kakashi didn't. Or that annoying runt who always hung around Sakura, Sai.

"What broke it?" Naruto said into the short silence. The question was softer than the others had been. Almost hesitant.

His throat tightened. Before, it had been Naruto's presence that gave him his sight back in those brief, taunting flashes. Naruto touching him. Loving him. As he always had. Despite everything.

But that hadn't been enough for Itachi. Itachi knew he needed more bonds than that.

"Sakura. You. And a future," he said quietly.

There was going to be another Uchiha to raise in Konoha soon. It wasn't just an abstract idea any more. It was fact.

He'd felt Sakura working chakra within herself earlier after he'd come in her. Knew she'd made sure her duty to him was out of the way before she'd coaxed Naruto to take her too, swiftly overcoming his half-hearted protests that they were here to make Sasuke an heir and that he wasn't to touch her with enough kisses and teasing touches that had made Sasuke ready to have her again himself.

He'd contented himself with fucking Naruto through the floor instead while he made love to his wife.

He'd really have to help the idiot work on his seduction techniques more. Though Sakura hadn't seemed too disappointed by their energetic – if awkward – performance. He'd just have make it his duty anyway, Sasuke thought with an inward smirk, all in the interests of continuing marital harmony.

But right here and now, Naruto was smiling at him brilliantly, a kind of amazed wonder on his face. And so Sasuke leaned closer to that pleased trust, that eternal warmth and pressed their mouths together in a quick, savage kiss that just managed to make him want more.

"Send me anywhere, Hokage. I'll always come back to you."

~*~

The sudden kick took her breath away. She paused under the tree in front of the Academy, one hand resting on her aching lower back, the other holding onto the old rope swing as she struggled to get her breath back. The sky above was sharp and blue and deep with the coming of autumn, made bluer by the thin white clouds hovering behind the Hokage's mountain. She'd been so uncomfortably hot all summer long, the cooler days were most welcome.

Beside her Sai paused, his gaze skipping over her heavy belly warily. The ripples of movement were obvious beneath her tightly stretched skin and the thin, loose smock that covered it.

"Is it time?" he asked. She rolled her eyes and let out a laughing breath as she moved her hand forward from her back to spread it soothingly over the flurry of frantic movement within her. Always so much movement. It was the most exhausting part of her pregnancy. But had she really expected any less?

"Quit asking that," she said, smiling wryly as a tiny foot kicked furiously at her palm. "I've told you it's still a month off."

"You're really fat and slow," he said, his eyes curving. "Are you sure you can make it that long?"

She just groaned and laughed, not even Sai's tactlessness able to dim her mood at the moment.

Air was displaced behind her and lean arms closed around her securely, drawing her back against a warm, bare chest. "You've been on your feet too long again," Sasuke said, his lips against her temple, his breath stirring the strands of hair there in a way that almost tickled.

She tilted her head back against his shoulder, letting her eyes close and her mouth curve into a smile as she relaxed back into his familiar hold. "Mm, probably," she agreed. "But it's the wrestling matches that get me, mostly."

"It was your idea to have twins," he said gruffly, spreading both hands flat over her quivering skin. "You need to rest more."

"I do," she said, savoring his strength, his steady presence. She opened her eyes to smile wearily at the cloud-strewn sky as the babies within her calmed beneath his touch. Of course they would for him and not for her.

"What, what's wrong with Sakura-chan?" Naruto demanded as he appeared beside them in a flash of dust and leaves, a frown on his face, his Hokage's coat swirling wildly around his legs. It was him she'd been coming to see, a report from Shizune about the hospital's budget in the heavy bag Sai carried for her. He'd been on an inspection of the Academy today and Shizune had used that as an excuse to send her away, she knew. His hands went to her belly too, pushing between Sasuke's, and the babies instantly started kicking again. She laughed then, the sound turning to gasps as she shorted herself precious air making her hands grip tighter to Sasuke's arms for support.

"I'm fine," she managed at last. "It's just your damn kids is all. Always fighting!"

"Of course!" Naruto said, proud grin dancing on his lips, his eyes sparkling wickedly. "My girl's not gonna take any crap from this bastard's boy."

"She's making it very hard on her mother this way," Sasuke said sternly. "You should be ashamed."

Naruto glared at him hotly for a moment, the air between them practically crackling with chakra and tension, then he frowned anxiously at her, his gaze worried again, his hands moving soothingly over her belly. "Ah, I'm sorry she's already a brat, Sakura-chan."

He crouched down and put his cheek against her bulging body. "Hey you in there! Stop kicking your mom so hard!"

She looked fondly down at his bent head and laughed again as one of the babies twisted inside her, shoving hard enough against his face with a random limb to make him pull back indignantly.

"Idiot," Sasuke said, smiling down at him in that subtle way he had. "They're both brats."

"Yeah, well we all expected yours to be…" Naruto said, grinning up at them both, his hands splayed over Sasuke's now, curving securely against her body together.

From the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Sai crouched on the ground, his pencil flying over the page of his sketchbook, his head moving as he glanced up and then hastily down at his paper again. She wondered how the finished picture would turn out.

\--fin--


End file.
